TROUBLES FOR THE CENTURY ON CENTRAL PARK

By ROBERT E. TOMASSON

Published: May 8, 1983

FROM its construction in 1930, with its Art Deco facade reaching 32 stories on twin towers, the Century a partment building has been one of the most imposing structures on C entral Park West.

Outside the spacious lobby, which leads to 13 professional offices, ornate entrances face Central Park and 62d and 63d Streets. Above, there are 410 apartments with one to eight bedrooms, many of them duplexes and 52 with sizable terraces.

It is also a building with strong emotional ties for tenants like Brad Winston, who was born in his parents' apartment 35 years ago and still lives there, and Rosalie D. Matis, who moved in with her parents in 1944 and remains. Her son lives in another apartment on the same floor while her husband, a cardiologist, has his office in one of the building's professional suites, where she also works.

They, like many other tenants, can remember when the 12 elevators were staffed by attendants and a small army of full-time plasterers and painters was on constant call to fix the smallest crack or paint a cabinet.

The Century is one of the very few remaining rental buildings in the choice lower end of Central Park West. Most of the buildings are cooperatives.

But the tenants and owners of the Century, at 25 Central Park West, are now embroiled in the kind of court fight that usually involves slum buildings. Some tenants say the owners have failed to keep the building in good repair, and as a result, they maintain, conditions have become dangerous. The tenants are seeking to have a judge appoint an administrator to receive rents rather than the owners. The administrator would then use the rents to repair the building. The procedure of appointing an administrator is referred to as a 7-A.

The building, say lawyers for the tenants, has become a virtual slum, with crumbling walls both inside and out, vermin infestation, extensive leaks, and virtually everything else that can go wrong with a structure. Some buildings in the South Bronx that have received administrators have been in better shape than the Century, David Rosenholtz, a lawyer representing about 200 of the tenants, said in court. ROBERT WOLF, a lawyer for the owners, denied those allegations. The b uilding has aged gracefully, he said, and while repairs are needed, a s with any building of that age, $1.24 million in work is under w ay. But the tenants say that is inadequate, and that the building r equires about $4 million in immediate repairs to the facade and to f ix leaks.

After hearing weeks of testimony, Judge Elliott Wilk of Civil Court in Manhattan has indicated that he would not appoint someone to collect rents and oversee repairs, but he has made no formal ruling.

''I am at this point disinclined to turn this building over to a 7-A administrator,'' Judge Wilk said from the bench, ''if there is in fact a significant effort that has been undertaken to do whatever has to be done to repair the building.''

Whatever Judge Wilk finally rules on the tenants' application for an administrator and the repairs that might be needed, a larger uncertainty hangs over the building. The owners are trying to convert the Century into a cooperative.

Mr. Wolf, the owners' lawyer, said in court that the tenants' 7-A proceeding was ''a negotiating ploy to coerce the owner of the building to offer better sales prices for the units and to attempt to pressure the owner to delay the filing and acceptance of the plan.''

The first attempt by the owners to begin the conversion process - an initial prospectus, or ''red herring,'' giving prices on apartments and details of the proposed sale - was rejected last March by the State Attorney General's office.

While the 7-A proceeding and the conversion plan are separate legal matters, together they have aroused landlord-tenant antagonisms that seem irreconcilable.

The owners are seeking to triple their investment in the building in a relatively short time. Thirteen months after they bought it for $36 million in January 1982, they offered to sell it to the tenants for $110 million. The owners are incorporated in partnerships established in Illinois and Delaware, not unusual in such real estate ventures.

One reason the red herring was rejected was that it did not list all other properties being offered for sale by any of the owners, as required by law, according to the New York State Attorney General's office. The rejection cited in particular ''Daniele Bodini (who) is a general partner of the sponsor of Schwab House at 11 Riverside Drive for which a plan for cooperative conversion was submitted on Sept. 8, 1982, and accepted for filing on March 7, 1983.''

Other owners or investors in the Century are Larry Silverstein, Ceil Feinberg, Sol Berger, Bruce Provo and Nathan Goldman, a New York real estate investor-developer who is one of the primary general partners. Additional owners' names have not been disclosed.

Another reason for rejection cited by Gerald Hurwitz, an assistant state attorney general, was that ''the plan does not disclose the tremendous potential increases in the assessed valuation and the resulting taxes that may be payable'' by a new cooperative group of tenant-owners.

After the offering proposal was made public, the Century's tenant organization canvassed residents. About 90 percent were opposed to the plan as offered, with prices generally in the $38,000- to $42,000-a-room range, according to Mr. Winston, co-chairman with Mrs. Matis of the tenant organization.

They said proposed prices of $120,000 or so for a one-bedroom apartment clearly came as a shock to the tenants, whose rents generally might be considered modest. A total of 275 apartments are rentstabilized, while 125 are rent-controlled. Between 12 and 18 apartments are vacant, according to the tenant organization.

Mrs. Matis's controlled rent is $1,266.44 a month for a spacious eight-room apartment with three bedrooms and three-and-a-half bathrooms. Most one- and two-bedroom apartments rent for $600 to $900.

Whether the rents are sufficient to sustain such services as shifts of six doormen on duty around the clock is one of the many points of contention between landlord and tenants.

For almost a year, scaffolding has covered the sidewalks on three sides of the Century to protect people from any materials that might fall from the facade and roof while workmen secure the stonework. The work is required by a new city safety law.

While the 7-A proceeding continues in court, and workmen slowly chip away at the stone, the uncertainty also continues at the Century. The lawyers for the owners have not said whether they will submit a new offer. But there seems little doubt among many tenants that an offering will again be made.

''I have a little bit of trouble believing that anybody is going to let 25 Central Park West die,'' said Judge Wilk, ''because there's too much of an investment in it.''

Illustrations: photo of Rosalie D. Matis and Brad Winston photo of Century at 25 Central Park West